Any medical folks here familiar with post concussive syndrome?

[Azraele]

Long story short, my husband slipped and fell on the ice during the last ice storm several weeks ago. Face first into the sidewalk, smashed the front of his head. Since then, he's having cognitive issues, trouble remembering words and things like meetings, locking the door, etc. He's also suffering from severe headaches, that have gotten worse instead of better with time. He's losing peripheral vision, can't sleep due to the pain, etc. Initial x-rays and MRI did not show anything. And yes, he's seeing the dr. again on Wed., but this guy isn't all that concerned with the headaches. He's just saying take some OTC stuff. Shouldn't the headaches get a little bit better with time, and not worse?

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

What kind of doc is he seeing? Who's reading the MRI's and X-Rays? Radiologist or a neurologist?

Ditch the doc and find another, and if the one he's seeing isn't a neuro, find one. Not a neurosurgeon though, just a neurologist.

My mom went to the ER with a headache, they told her to take some aspirin and go home. Next day she was helicoptered 200 miles for a brain bleed.

 

[Azraele]

He's seeing a neurologist, but this guy specializes in juveniles, not adults. He was referred to him by an urgent care place. Would they have to do another referral?

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Depends on the doc. The neuro I'm seeing I just called and made an appointment.

I was even able to get an appointment with a neurosurgeon without a reference, just found the head of neurosurgery and called and asked for an appointment and he took it.

 

[crashtestdummy]

I'm not a doctor but from what I know of post concussion syndrome, there isn't a lot they can do to make him better except give him time and tell him to be careful not to get another concussion. If the symptoms persist long-term, you may want to consider cognitive behavioral therapy to find coping mechanisms for the memory problems, but it won't really address the root issue.

For what it's worth, I'm really sorry he's going through this and I hope the symptoms are largely temporary.

P.S. Have you had his eyes checked to make sure the vision problems are neurological and not due to retinal detachment? It's not likely, but something like that would be important to check out.

 

[Azraele]

Thanks for the input. I think he'd feel a lot better if he could get the headaches under control. He's afraid of losing his job. All he can do right now is lie down and try to sleep. I did suggest an eye exam based on a comment he made. He told me it felt like if he could rip his eye out, the pressure would be gone. He has not gotten his eyes checked yet though. I'm not a dr., but it sounded to me like ruling out something in the eyes might be a start.

 

[mnewsham]

Go to another neurologist, I went to the neurologist that was referred by the hospital after my basilar migraines, he recommended OTC pain killers for the migraines, which did nothing. I decided to get a second opinion from a different neurologist who explained to me that basilar migraines aren't usually receptive to most pain killers and OTC ones would likely do nothing. the other neurologist should have known better but didn't. We did finally manage to find the right drugs to help me but I will definitely be getting second opinions more often in the future.

 

[John Connor]

Sorry to hear this. I hate the winter just for this reason. The cock sucking fucking ice. It fucks people up every year. Sounds like you need a better Doc though.